In the end, no one got close to knocking off the Fayetteville-Manlius girls tennis team, either in the CNY Counties League or when competition extended into the Section III Class A team tournament.
As a top seed, the Hornets rolled through all three rounds, including last Wednesday’s 7-0 sweep of Cicero-North Syracuse in the semifinals and a similar effort to beat no. 2 seed Baldwinsville in the finals two days later at Utica Parkway Courts.
C-NS went first, and the singles trio of Maggie Bonomo, Keara Polovick and Anna Manta each won in straight sets, Polovick handling Jenna Wilson 6-0, 6-1 as Manta picked up a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Sydney Franco.
The Northstars put its best players in doubles, but F-M still won those matches in straight sets. Two of them were close as Kristina Liu and Diana Polovick fought past Brenna Duffy and Megan Tryniski 6-4, 7-5 as Gretchen Ayoub and Martha Welker took a 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win over Sarah Cooper and Sarah Wicks.
It proved a bit more lopsided in the other doubles matches, Katerina Attalah pairing with Patrice Calancie for a 6-2, 6-2 win over Hanna Costello and Madison Murphy as Anna Charlamb and Rachel Liu defeated Breanna Melfi and Keara Savage 6-1, 6-1.
Now it was on to the sectional title match. B’ville had only picked off one point from F-M in two regular-season meetings, and it wouldn’t do so here, either, despite some tremendous efforts in each of the four doubles matches.
The closest call came in second doubles, where Manta paired with Keara Polovick and lost the first set to Taylor Collado and Alina Minkova, 6-1. Then Manta and Polovick got pushed to a second-set tie-breaker, but won it, 7-2, and then held off Collado and Minkova 6-4 in the third set.
Welker and Miriam Drapeau survived a long first-set tie-breaker to get past Katherine Cassidy and Gabby Fiello 7-6 (10-8), 6-3, while Calancie and Diana Polovick won, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, over Paige Tromblee and Lauren Devine. Anna Charlamb and Rachel Liu got past Yasha Parawar and Riley Warren 6-4, 6-4.
Up in singles, it was more lopsided in the Hornets’ favor. Bonomo put together a 6-0, 6-3 win over B’ville’s Jennifer Stone, with Kristina Liu beating Amanda Coogan 6-2, 6-2. Atallah finished off the sweep by rolling past Brooke Tutor 6-2, 6-1.
Cassidy and Fiello could not win a long first-set tie-breaker against Martha Welker and Miriam Drapeau in a 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 defeat, while Tromblee and Devine fell to Patrice Calancie and Diana Polovick 7-6 (7-3), 6-3. Parawar and Warren kept things close, but also lost, 6-4, 6-4, to Anna Charlamb and Rachel Liu.
Up in singles, the Bees had a more difficult time, seeing Stone fall to F-M’s Maggie Bonomo 6-0, 6-3 and Tutor lose, 6-2, 6-1, to Katerina Atallah, while Coogan had a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Kristina Liu. B’ville’s top singles and doubles players would go into individual sectional tournaments early this week.
Meanwhile, in the Class B sectional tournament, Christian Brothers Academy, holding the no. 2 seed, got within a single game of knocking off no. 3 seed Cazenovia in last Wednesday’s semifinal before taking a close 4-3 defeat to the Lakers.
Each of the four doubles matches got decided in straight sets. For the Brothers, Rena Steele and Alison Croucher beat Lucy Connor and Laura Connor 6-3, 6-1, with Grace Coyne and Aubrey Mills battling hard in a 6-4, 7-5 win over Meg Milmoe and Summer Steinhorst.
Cazenovia countered with two points of its own. Annaka Bruno and Lizzy Druke topped Karen Simone and Isabella Mead 6-1, 6-4, while Abby Burrell and Julie Silverman worked past Sloane Nicoletti-Watson and Meredith Strott 7-5, 6-3.
So the match would get decided by who would prevail in singles, and CBA went in front when Mikayla Santulli swept Lucy Langan 6-2, 6-2. What’s more, Anna Sasser and Grace DelPino each took leads in their respective matches.
But Barrett shook off her 6-2 first-set defeat to conquer Sasser 6-2, 6-2 in the other two sets. Even more dramatic was Galle losing the first set 6-3 against DelPino and going to a second-set tie-breaker, but pulling it out, 7-4, and then beating DelPino 6-3 in the third set for the clinching point.
Cazenovia wasn’t done with the drama, either, moving on to knock off unbeaten, top-seeded Oneida by that same 4-3 margin in the sectional final.
